MH17 Crash Passengers Were Unlawfully Killed – Coroner

A Coroner has concluded that five British citizens were unlawfully killed when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine.

A joint inquest into the deaths of five of the 298 on board has been held in England, where their bodies were repatriated to.

The court heard evidence that a Buk missile was fired from Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists. It exploded in front of the cockpit of the aircraft, the inquest heard.

Fragments of the missile then killed crew members in the cockpit and caused significant damage to the aircraft, causing it to break up. The inquest was held in Leicester for the following five passengers:

The aircraft was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July 2014 when it was shot down.All of the 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed. Of those who died, 10 were British.

The inquest heard evidence from Det Ch Supt Dominic Murphy, from the Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) of the Metropolitan Police.

He said a criminal investigation taking place in The Hague had identified four individuals as possibly being responsible for the missile, and they were being tried in their absence.

He said the missile exploded in front of the cockpit of the aircraft, and fragments penetrated the aircraft on the left hand side of the cockpit.

He said fragments of metal were found in the bodies of crew members when their remains were recovered, and that the miissile system appeared to have been smuggled over the border to Ukraine from Russian on 16 and 17 July.

After hearing all of the evidence, coroner Catherine Mason said: “I am satisfied that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile that was fired by pro-Russian separatists.